WALLACE KNOWS ABOUT CHARLOTTE BACK-TO-BACK WEEKENDS;
MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE DRIVER HAS EXPERIENCED "THE JINX"

-"It's Terribly Hard To Keep The Momentum Going For Two Weeks," Wallace Says -

CONCORD, N.C. (May 21, 2003) - Miller Lite Team Penske Dodge driver Rusty Wallace is perhaps a step short of calling it "The Winston Jinx," but he certainly knows there's something there to ponder and he has experienced it first-hand.

"Last week was last week and this week is this week," said Wallace, who finished 21st in last Saturday's The Winston "all-star" race after failing to advance past the first segment. "This week is the big pie in the sky - the World (Coca-Cola) 600 - the major big-time race and that's where all of our focus has been since about 10 o'clock last Saturday night.

"We've seen it all happen before and it's happened to us - a team falls flat the first week and then blasts back with guns ablazin' the next week in the 600," Wallace offers. "And we've definitely seen it the other way around, too, when a team kicks major butt the first week and then falls off the face of the earth the very next week.

"I mean I'm not saying that Jimmie Johnson oughta' be writing this weekend off, because heck, he took that million bucks home last week. But the fact is that it's super hard to pull it off - kickin' butt two weeks in a row. I don't know whether it's that a team just lets down after such a high the first week, whether there's something that goes wrong in preparation or it's just a matter of luck. My guess is that it's probably a combination of all of those things. It's terribly hard to keep the momentum going for two weeks. Just Look back at what happened to Ryan (Newman) last year and (Jeff) Gordon the year before. All I know is that few teams have been able to get the job done for two consecutive weeks at Charlotte (Lowe's Motor Speedway) and Lord knows we've certainly experienced that first-hand."

Wallace's reference to his Penske teammate Newman's and Gordon's experiences offer substantiation to the potential "two week taboo" at the 1.5-mile speedway and there's more - much more - to back up such a belief.

Newman won last year's The Winston, only to finish a dismal 41st the following week after blowing an engine only a quarter way into the race, the longest event on the circuit. Gordon took the checkered flag in the 2001 "all-star" event and came back the following week to finish 29th in the 600, after mechanical woes left him three laps off the pace at the finish.

Perhaps Wallace's own experiences serve as the best examples. His last win in the prestigious 600-mile race came in 1990, exactly a week after he finished 20th - dead last - in The Winston, after blowing an engine only eight laps into the event. His only win in The Winston came in his 1989 championship season. The following week in the 600, he blew an engine and finished 31st for his second-worst finish of the year.

But the fodder for fueling the "jinx" theory goes much further. Consider these facts:

The two candidates for rookie-of-the-year honors in 2000 were winner Matt Kenseth and runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt won The Winston, but the winner of the 600, Kenseth, was not even in the starting field for that edition of the all-star race after finishing 14th in the preliminary qualifying event.

The record book shows that over the last 10 years, the winner of The Winston has only a 12.8 average finish the following week in the 600. During that same period, the drivers who won the 600 have only an 11.8 average finish in the week prior's all-star race (excluding Kenseth of course).

Only twice in the last 10 years has a driver won The Winston and came back the following week to take the checkered flag in the Coca-Cola 600. The late Dale Earnhardt accomplished the fete in 1993 and Gordon had consecutive winning weekends in 1997. Wallace played major roles in both of those editions of the 600.

"That '93 race came only a matter of a couple of weeks after my big crash down at Talladega," Wallace recalled of the accident that saw a tap from Earnhardt send Wallace's Pontiac flipping wildly across the finish line. "We raced at Talladega, then at Sears Point and then it was straight to Charlotte. We were leading at Sears Point when I stripped the transmission out because of the stupid brace I was having to wear with the broken wrist I had from the Talladega wreck. We spun out not once, but twice in the 600 and finished way back there because of lack of mobility. As it turned out, Dale won the thing, got a big points lead and we were never able to make it up. He beat us by a handful of points for the championship that year. I remember that I was happy for him winning the 600 that year. We had condos that were just down from each other that year and I even went down to help him celebrate his victory party with him after his win.

"We should have won the thing there in '97 when Jeff came home the winner," said Wallace. "There was a period there for several years that he really cost me a ton of money and that was definitely one of those races. It seemed like no matter what, we'd use one strategy and he'd use another to always come out the winner back then. We'd led the thing until late in the race in '97 only to see a caution come out at the end. He took on only two tires and we got four and he beat us as we finished second. Then we came back in the 600 a year later and the same deal was unfolding. We led late in the race only to see the caution come out. That time we got two and he got four. He was able to get us with that advantage that time around and we had to again settle for second. So he two-tired and beat us once and came back and four-tired and beat us in the next 600. Like I said back then, that kid really cost me some major bucks and some race wins along the way, that's for sure."

The 43-car starting field for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 will be determined in Thursday's qualifying session which begins at 7:00 p.m. Speed Channel (TV) and PRN Radio will provide live coverage. Sunday's Cocoa-Cola 600 gets the green flag at 6:05 p.m. EDT. Fox-TV and PRN Radio will broadcast the event live.

-Rusty Wallace Career Track Records-
LOWE'S (CHARLOTTE) MOTOR SPEEDWAY
(1.5 miles)

Date Event Car St Fn Laps $ Won Status
5/26/02 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 31 10 400/400 $113,125 Running
10/13/02 UAW-GM 500 Ford 6 5 334/334 111,100 Running

5/27/01 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 16 14 400/400 109,255 Running
10/7/01 UAW-GM 500 Ford 24 7 334/334 92,330 Running

5/28/00 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 16 8 400/400 64,350 Running
10/8/00 UAW-GM 500 Ford 22 21 333/334 44,420 Running

5/30/99 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 19 31 392/400 46,540 Running
10/11/99 UAW-GM 500 Ford 2 8 333/334 60,250 Running

5/24/98 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 4 2 400/400 109,500 Running
10/4/98 UAW-GM 500 Ford 6 26 282/334 32,300 Running

5/25/97 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 21 2 333/333 108,025 Running
10/5/97 UAW-GM 500 Ford 25 12 332/334 39,000 Running

5/26/96 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 43 34 300/400 23,425 Running
10/6/96 UAW-GM 500 Ford 23 8 334/334 35,000 Running

5/28/95 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 24 34 258/400 22,500 Handling
10/8/95 UAW-GM 500 Ford 20 9 334/334 34,200 Running

5/29/94 Coca-Cola 600 Ford 21 2 400/400 88,075 Running
10/9/94 Mello Yello 500 Ford 15 37 256/334 16,680 Engine

5/30/93 Coca-Cola 600 Pontiac 8 29 353/400 14,880 Handling
10/10/93 Mello Yello 500 Pontiac 21 4 334/334 42,950 Running

5/25/92 Coca-Cola 600 Pontiac 7 18 386/400 18,050 Engine
10/11/92 Mello-Yello 500 Pontiac 21 37 128/334 11,590 Carbur.

5/26/91 Coca-Cola 600 Pontiac 9 22 353/400 7,000 Engine
10/6/91 Mello Yello 500 Pontiac 8 27 296/334 4,775 Running

5/27/90 Coca-Cola 600 Pontiac 9 1 400/400 151,000 Running
10/7/90 Mello Yello 500 Pontiac 12 38 133/334 11,995 Engine

5/28/89 Coca-Cola 600 Pontiac 6 31 306/400 13,950 Engine
10/8/89 All Pro 500 Pontiac 6 8 333/334 23,900 Running
5/29/88 Coca-Cola 600 Pontiac 11 2 400/400 56,425 Running
10/9/88 Oakwood Homes 500 Pontiac 3 1 334/334 84,300 Running
5/24/87 Coca-Cola 600 Pontiac 23 10 396/400 28,375 Running
10/11/87 Oakwood Homes 500 Pontiac 19 22 223/334 12,065 Engine
5/25/86 Coca-Cola 600 Pontiac 9 10 398/400 16,750 Running
10/5/86 Oakwood Homes 500 Pontiac 15 8 332/334 14,750 Running
5/26/85 World 600 Pontiac 15 8 396/400 14,695 Running
10/6/85 Miller 500 Pontiac 25 30 210/334 4,540 Engine
5/27/84 World 600 Pontiac 12 15 390/400 8,740 Running
10/7/84 Miller 500 Pontiac 14 14 330/334 8,175 Running
5/30/82 World 600 Buick 23 29 307/400 1,800 Accident
5/24/81 World 600 Pontiac 21 30 204/400 2,020 Accident
10/11/81 National 500 Buick 19 6 331/334 6,750 Running
10/5/80 National 500 Chevrol. 25 14 325/334 8,510 Running

Races Wins Top-5 Top-10 Poles $$$$$
Coca-Cola 600 21 1 5 10 0 $1,018,480
UAW-GM 500 21 1 3 10 0 699,580
TOTAL 42 2 8 20 0 $1,718,060

Lap completion percentage: 13,753/15,347 = 89.6%

RUSTY WALLACE/MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE
2003 RACE RECORD/CAREER STATISTICAL BRIEF

Race Race Name Start Finish Laps comp/ Times Led/
Date Location Pos. Pos. Poss. Laps Laps Led $$$ Won Status/Comment

2/16 Daytona 500 38 25 109/109 0/0 185,625 Running/PC-33 pitted late
Daytona Beach, Fla. for oil on windshield
2/23 Subway 400 8 6 393/393 4/182# 103,710 Running/PC-54 was the
Rockingham, N.C. toughest for 2/3rds race
3/2 UAW/Chrysler 400 25 40 174/267 0/0 92,300 Accident/PC-47 crashed Las Vegas, Nevada by No. 4 in turn 1
3/9 Bass Pro/MBNA 500 7 15 324/325 0/0 88,092 Running/PC-43 slapped
Hampton, Ga. wall racing for 5th
3/16 Carolina Dodge 400 13 16 291/293 0/0 83,827 Running/PC-29 tough, but
Darlington, S.C. caution put 2 laps down
3/23 Food City 500 4 14 498/500 1/5 99,882 Running/New PC-60 lost
Bristol, Tenn. 2 laps on green pit stop
3/30 Samsung/Radio Shack 500 10 14 333/334 0/0 126,692 Running/PC-51 again
Justin, Texas bitten after green stop
4/6 Aaron's 499 31 37 12/188 0/0 101,567 Accident/PC-33 caught
Talladega, Ala. up in lap 4 crash/returned
4/13 Virginia 500 5 8 500/500 1/13 91,217 Running/PC-49 tough;
Martinsville, Va. Great stops, then bad
4/27 Auto Club 500 7 3 250/250 2/54 146,917 Running/PC-51 was in
Fontana, Calif. a position to win
5/3 Pontiac 400 17 10 392/392 0/0 91,942 Running/New PC-57
Richmond, Va. Came back from run-in

# led most laps

2003 Season Recap: (points events)
Races Led/
Times Led/
Starts Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Laps Led Points Information
11 0 1 4 0 4/8/254 9th/1,274/-345 to 1st (#17)

Lap Completion Percentage 2002 Winnings Average Start: 15.9
3,276/3,551 = 92.3% $1,254,672 Average Finish: 17.8
DNFs: 2

Career Brief:

Starts Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Career $$$ Won
609 54 190 313 36 $35,697,525